$4.3b rail plan ‘set to unlink’ Werribee and Geelong stops

Andrew Mathieson
STATE Government’s Regional Rail Link plan will stop commuter services between Geelong and Werribee, according to a public transport lobby.
Public Transport Users Association’s Geelong convenor Paul Westcott said that under the plan Geelong’s new line would not stop at Werribee before diverting to Wyndhamvale and Tarneit.
“When we saw the original proposal three or four years ago that was just a line on a map, it rang alarm bells right away,” he said
Geelong trains heading to Southern Cross from 2014 will divert onto the Bendigo line at Deer Park station before joining the Ballarat line at Sunshine.
Mr Westcott doubted Transport Minister Martin Pakula’s claim that trains from Geelong to Melbourne would run a “few seconds” longer than existing services.
“Clearly, the trains that stop at Wyndhamvale and Tarneit are likely to take much longer than the trains now,” Mr Westcott said.
He accused the Government of failing to publicly disclose all details of the proposed rail link.
Mr Westcott said spending $4.3 billion on the new line was “extraordinary” considering more than 1500 users would be disadvantaged.
Students, pensioners, the unemployed and the disabled would be “worse off”, he said.
“The only thing the Department of Transport can offer them as an alternative is a bus from Werribee station out to Wyndhamvale on the new line.”
Mr Westcott said a bus between the two stations would increase travel by 20 minutes, meaning a one-hour trip to and from Geelong.
Mr Pakula’s spokesperson said the Regional Rail Link would “untangle” congestion and delays on the Werribee line and service Melbourne’s growing outer-western suburbs.
“Regional Rail Link will achieve this by largely separating regional trains from suburban trains for the first time, giving Geelong trains their own tracks into Melbourne and providing improved capacity and greater certainty about travel times for approximately 5550 people,” the spokesperson said.